“Little by little, we lost control and you could see that we weren’t sharp enough. In the second half we stretched out and they hurt us on the break.

“I think this was a difficult game against a team that worked hard for this appointment. It wasn’t easy. You could see in the Italian Super Cup against Roma that the side has quality, but is not physically prepared. We saw the same thing again.

“If we were to play this match again, the only thing we could improve would be the fitness levels and to adjust a couple of things.”

The defeat has heightened speculations of further transfer activities by the Nerazurri's with the likes of Dirk Kuyt and  Guiseppe Sculli the most talked of.

“At this stage we are working on the pitch. Marco Branca and President Massimo Moratti are working off of it. We’ll see if we can do something,” continued Benitez.

“I think we’re all a little angry, but that is normal after this result. We clearly need to analyse what we did worst and what lessons we can learn.”